““The thing about emotional pain is that no matter how horrible it is, there are usually options. Pain would prefer you not know that, of course, as pain is the ultimate attention whore, but the reality is that pain’s going to do its work regardless of what you do or how you react. Pain cripples the best of us, but if you’re lucky and it doesn’t obliterate you entirely, it can be used as a cathartic weapon. At best, pain can be morphed into a vehicle for understanding and healing, and ultimately, hopefully, enlightenment, transcendence and peace. Sometimes, though, the best we can hope for is a little of both, a kind of imperfect destruction. For me, those avenues are necessities for survival and an integral part of the process of creating the things I create through my writing. I cannot be passive in my pain any more than I can be passive in my joy. I need to confront and use it—weaponized through language, thought, emotion and soul—to shine a light on that pain, but also, more importantly, my humanity. I run not from the fire, but directly into it, because I’m burning anyway. And in those moments, though it may often feel that way, I’m not alone. And neither are you.””
